"The core's collapse has woken up whatever was buried under us!"
Steve's expression changed. He immediately raised his shield.
"Prepare for combat! New enemies incoming!"
Before his words had even fallen, the first wave of monsters was already crawling out from fissures and shadows.
They came in all shapes and sizes—some looked like skinned giant lizards, some like twisted arthropods, and some were nothing more than writhing lumps of flesh packed with jagged teeth.
Their target was very clear—every living presence in the area, especially Saitama, who had just caused the massive destruction, and Steve's group, who were still on full alert.
"Just got a breather…"
Clint quickly scrambled up a taller pile of rubble, reaching back to pull a specially-made arrow from his quiver.
Natasha had already darted out like a black cat, her electric batons and pistol firing precisely, picking off the monsters that got too close.
Steve held the vanguard position. His shield swept out, smashing a crawling monster that was spewing acid, while at the same time deflecting a volley of bone spines shot from another creature.
Saitama looked at the waves of monsters surging in from all directions, their forms even more grotesque than the fungus mass they had just defeated.
On that eternally expressionless poker face of his, there finally appeared a trace of something that could be called "helplessness."
He sighed. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut clearly through the monsters' roars.
"Man… there's still this many? Such a pain."
He rolled his wrist a couple of times, his eyes turning serious again.
"Looks like I've still gotta keep stretching my legs."
The newly arrived monsters poured in like a tide. Their sheer variety and bizarre forms far surpassed the mycelium creatures from before.
They seemed to have been drawn here by the massive energy shock and deathly aura released by the core's collapse, driven by pure, primordial killing instinct.
One monster, shaped like a gigantic pangolin with a shell of scorching magma plating its back, crawled forward on all fours.
Every step it took charred and melted the ground beneath it.
It suddenly lifted its head, a blinding red light flaring deep in its throat.
The next instant, a thick column of molten fire erupted outward, sweeping across the survivors!
"Spread out!" Steve roared.
He lifted his shield and took the brunt of the fire head-on.
The vibranium shield let out a harsh buzzing under the impact, the intense heat making his arm feel like it was on fire.
He gritted his teeth, shoved forward with all his strength, and forced the fire beam to deflect, shielding the agents behind him.
On the other side, several monsters that looked like supersized hedgehogs, their bodies covered in razor-sharp bone spines, suddenly curled up.
The next moment, they shot out like cannon shells!
Spinning at high speed through the air, their spines turned into a deadly hail of projectiles, indiscriminately saturating a wide area.
"Watch the air!"
Natasha weaved through the monster horde with agile footwork, slipping past jets of acid and slashing claws, her precise shots disrupting the hedgehog monsters' charge-up motions.
There were also shadow hunters whose speed was terrifying.
They flickered through the ruins like ghosts, bouncing from surface to surface and leaving afterimages behind them, their sharp claw-blades going straight for ankles and throats—attacks that were nearly impossible to react to in time.
On top of that, hulking rock giants the size of small hills stomped forward, each step making the ground tremble.
They swung enormous fists made of solid stone, smashing at anything in their path.
Saitama stood at the very center of the battlefield—or rather, he himself was the biggest magnet for enemy firepower.
Facing attacks coming at him from every direction, he looked utterly at ease.
A magma pangolin charged straight at him.
Saitama casually shifted his body half a step, letting it rush past, then drove a backhand punch square into its side.
"Pshh!"
With a dull, wet bang, its hard magma armor shattered like an eggshell.
The monster's massive body was knocked clean off its feet, sent flying into a crumbling wall and smashing it to pieces.
(End of Chapter)
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